The FNCA 2002 Project Leaders Meeting of Public Information on Nuclear Energy was held from October 16 to 17, 2002, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. A short minutes of the meeting is given as follows.

FY2002 Project Leaders Meeting of FNCA Project
of Public Information on Nuclear Energy

Evaluation of the public information activities in the immediate past

Each Project Leader reported on the immediately past public information activities in the respective country, and stated an evaluation of the major public information activities under the FNCA scheme. Some specific evaluations are worthy to note and will be summarized below;

a.

Enhancing communications among the FNCA countries proves to be helpful and invaluable to the public information programs of each country.

b.

Exchange of nuclear information among FNCA countries should be made as promptly as possible, by using E-mail and other practical tools. Transmission of nuclear Information by facsimile should be continued. In providing information, each it is requested to produce more "output"in terms of opinion, comments, or the current news.

c.

Provision of Japanese periodical publications, such as "Atoms in Japan", was appreciated by most FNCA countries. These countries requested that such publications should continue to be made available to them in the future as well.

d.

Each FNCA country is expected that it should be able to use and distribute only a limited number of these copies in the most effective way through carefully selected channels.

e.

Needs and effectiveness of the FNCA Regional Speakers Bureau (RSB) was examined. Many participants recognized that the RSB program is important for their national PI activities.

f.

Strengthening close communications with the mass media was re-confirmed to be an essential component of successful public information activities.

g.

Tentative reports were submitted to the meeting by some countries including Japan, regarding the implementation of the joint survey of high school students on their understanding of radiation and its applications. In addition, PL's also discussed plans for publication of the results of the joint survey and examined the future possibility of a similar survey.

At the discussion after these reports, opinions was exchangedlively among participants. Prof. Yasumasa Tanaka of Japan together with Prof. Hak-Soo Kim served as co-moderators.

a.

For the next fiscal year 2003, some PLs'proposed, in connection with the Regional Speakers Bureau, that the FNCA should consider to render a financial support when a request is made for an invitation of a speaker to a national Information activities, such as a symposium, a seminar, or some special occasion. Vietnam and Thailand already expressed their need for such a support for their seminars scheduled in 2003.

b.

Feasibility needs to be examined as to the publication of the results of the joint cross-national survey on the attitudes of high school students toward radiation and its applications. Examination will continue to be made and the result will be reported at the next PL's l meeting in Vietnam.

c.

Public information activities for the younger generations will be examined and presented with more specific and tangible program proposals from each country. The result of the joint survey might provide a good basis for discussion. In this connection, any suggestion or proposal of some specific method of information dissemination and outreach will be very valuable. For example, one of my Korean colleagues stated at the PBNC 2002 in China last October that "Education by visiting power plants is a better way of teaching "energy"to young people than education by reading books on .energy"

d.

A draft status report of the join survey will be carefully examined before the report is finalized. The final report of the survey must include the evaluation, the meaningfulness and the usefulness of such a survey in the FNCA's framework.

e.

Finally, Vietnam proposes to hold the Project Leaders Meeting in 2003 in Ho Chi Minh City in connection with the national nuclear public information events which include an exhibition and a seminar.

Technical visit to Korea Atomic Energy
Research Institute (KAERI)

Minutes on the FNCA 2002 Project Leaders
Meeting of Public Information on Nuclear Energy

October 16-17, 2002,
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

The FNCA 2002 Project Leaders Meeting of Public Information on Nuclear Energy was held from October 16 to 17, 2002 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Malaysian Institute for Nuclear Technology Research (MINT) and the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) of Japan jointly hosted the meeting in cooperation with the Japan Atomic Industrial Forum, INC (JAIF). The Meeting was officially opened by Dato` Dr. Ahmad Sobri Hj. Hashim, Director General of MINT. Mr. Tachikawa of MEXT, Japan delivered a welcome remark.

The participants in this meeting were FNCA Project Leaders for Public Information from the seven countries of "The Forum for Nuclear Cooperation in Asia (FNCA)", i.e. Republic of Indonesia, Japan, Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Republic of the Philippines, Kingdom of Thailand and Socialist Republic of Vietnam, while Australia and Peoples Republic of China were not present. They attended the two-day meeting as well as the technical visit to MINT on the second day.

The Project Leaders also attended the opening ceremony and plenary sessions of the International Nuclear Conference 2002 (INC'02) on October 15, 2002. Dr. Machi and Dr. Chung presented key-note papers in the plenary sessions.

Dr. Machi presented reports on the Second FNCA Meeting and the Third FNCA Coordinators Meeting.

Each Project Leader reported on the past public information activities in its respective country, and then introduced their evaluation on the public information activities under FNCA framework. The results are shown as follows;

Enhancing communication among FNCA countries proves to be helpful and invaluable to the public information programs of each participating country.

Regarding AsiaNNet activities;

a.

The transmission of nuclear Information by facsimile should be continued as they have provided useful information for each country's public information program. Importance to shift to the use of E-mail for prompt transmission of nuclear information was emphasized again, and concrete principle in conducting this practice was discussed. Agreement that was made by the participants were:

-

Exchange of nuclear information among FNCA countries should be made as promptly as possible, by using E-mail and other practical tools.

-

In providing information, each country is requested to put more explanation or comments from the provider.

b.

Provision of periodical publications such as "Atoms in Japan"was appreciated by the FNCA countries and requested that it be continued, and if possible more copies should be made available. It is emphasized again that FNCA countries were strongly requested to make the best effort to supply their information through periodical publications in English to other FNCA countries.

c.

Additional copy of the FNCA newsletter should be provided based upon request of FNCA countries and each country is requested to utilize distributed copies with the most effective way through carefully selected channels.

d.

The participants recommended that JAIF should operate and maintain FNCA Web-Site and the content should be enriched with the contribution from all FNCA countries.

Project Leaders reported the present situation of the public information activities in their country, by identifying the purpose, priority of the target groups, examples of the activities, and importance of education on energy in general and nuclear energy in particular. Examples of public information activities influenced by social and political factors were also introduced and discussed. The meeting also discussed the way to develop public information activities in the future under FNCA framework shown as follows;

Public information activities under FNCA framework should be designed to identify the real needs of each FNCA country, to study possible methods and past experiences to satisfy the needs, and to specify most viable approaches to solve issues that the country faces. Discussions in Improving FNCA PI Activities focused on three issues:

-

How to enhance communication with the mass media such as reporters of newspaper and TV?

-

What are the most serious obstacles in communication with the public? How to solve the problem?

-

What about the role of school education? Current status and trend in the near future

Identified issues to enhance communication with the mass media were the following:

-

Developing personalized contacts with media.

-

Local presses are more interested with news affecting their locality.

-

There appears to have no specific role when dealing with media.

To enhance communication it was suggested that personal contact be developed by inviting them to our institute, give seminars and allow them to choose their representatives, and respect their decisions. In addition, give them due recognition on what they did. Also give interviews but it should be short, direct, and true. You should show that you are 100% reliable. Also it was suggested that we keep 3-5 reporters whom you can rely to give you the necessary support. In return, we supply them with news items even when they are not required but which they can use when they need them. As far as item b is concerned, some obstacles were also identified such as:

-

Some of the public does not want to listen. They have closed their minds on the issues that do not directly concern them.

-

Communications are done on different wave lengths.

-

Technical language is not understandable to the public.

-

Personnel in the nuclear sectors believe that they are special and would not like to mix with the public. 'They think they are a superior group'

Suggested solutions include:

-

Use third party communicators to speak for nuclear industry who are more acceptable to the public, such as religious leaders, public officials.

-

Appropriate messages are prepared for the right groups; i.e. - should address their specific concern/interest.

-

Personnel in the nuclear industry should change their attitude and behave as if they were members of the public.

On the role of education, it was the consensus of the group that education is a very important component of public information. To attain this status, trainers should be trained to adopt appropriate techniques in teaching different groups. Textbooks should be improved to give balanced information about the subject. The perspective about the protection of the environment should be reoriented. Surveys make a good opportunity to establish contact with the public, students and teachers.

Needs and effectiveness of the FNCA Regional Speakers Bureau (RSB) was discussed. The participants recognized that RSB program is still important for their national PI activities. Based upon this viewpoint, concrete procedure was discussed to utilize RSB program as much as possible, including the practices of early nomination of the event and necessity of follow up at the latest 4 months before the event date, and necessity of detailed information of the event.

-

Next year 2003, FNCA proposed to support requests for speakers for national Public Information activities. Vietnam and Thailand expressed their need for this support for their scheduled seminars.

Strengthening communication with mass media was confirmed to be an essential component of successful public information activities. The Meeting also discussed the possibility of holding meetings between nuclear community and the mass media.

Tentative report about implementation of the Joint Survey of high school students on their understanding of radiation and its applications was made and future plan of this kind of survey was discussed. It was proposed that report on this survey should be made before the Third FNCA Meeting to introduce the significance of PI activities to the ministerial level representatives of FNCA countries.

Importance of public information activities for the young generation was again stressed, and a special event on this purpose was proposed and agreed by each Project Leader for the respective country.

The preliminary status report of the Joint Survey and the meaningfulness and usefulness was presented and discussed. The final result including the evaluation of the meaningfulness and usefulness will be evaluated when all data are quantitatively analyzed.

Vietnam proposed to hold the Project Leaders Meeting in 2003 in Ho Chi Minh City in connection with the national nuclear public information events which include an exhibition and a seminar. Details will be fixed through communication between VAEC and ACC/JAIF. Thailand proposed to be an alternate host.

The participants to this FNCA 2002 Project Leaders Meeting expressed their appreciation to MINT, MEXT, and JAIF for their efforts to organize the meeting.

The minutes were agreed upon by all the participants in the meeting and will be reported at the Third FNCA Meeting in October 30-31, Seoul, 2002, in Korea.

Attendance of Participants to the opening ceremony of the International Nuclear Conference 2002 (INC'02) Venue: Putra World Trade Center, Kuala Lumpur.

11:00-16:30

Join the Plenary Sessions of the INC'02 in relation to the issues of Communication and Outreach that discuss public perception and acceptance of nuclear technology, building public confidence in the nuclear industry; image of nuclear technology development.

How to enhance communication with the mass media such as reporters of newspaper and TV?

b.

What are the most serious obstacles in communication with the public?
How to solve the problem?

c.

What about the role of school education? Current status and trend in the near future

16:00-16:15

Coffee Break

18:00

Dinner

-Thursday, October 17-

<SESSION 2>

Support of FNCA to National PI Events for FY 2003
Co-Chairs: (Korea and Vietnam)

08:35-10:00

Proposals requesting FNCA speakers Other supports

10:10 -10:10

Coffee Break

<SESSION 3>

Report on the Joint Survey of High School Students on Radiation
Co-Chairs: (Japan and The Philippines)

10:10 - 10:50

Status report by participating countries
* Inclusion of following comments in the status report may be most valuable:

(1)

Appropriateness and adequacy of the question items used in the survey

(2)

General characteristics of high school students serving as respondents
(urban/rural, private school/public school, upper class/middle class, etc.)

(3)

Data collection procedures ( a median or average time spent for completion of the questionnaire, questions that might have raised by students to the teachers in charge, before, during or after the survey, and the teachers general response to this survey)

10:50-12:00

Brief summary of the result obtained in Japan

* Brief summaries of the Philippines and Indonesia might be also introduced by them

12:00|12:30

Evaluation of the meaningfulness and usefulness of the present survey for enhancing the public awareness and understanding of radiation

12:30-13:00

Discussion on the form of publication of the joint survey

Closing Session

Co-Chairs: (Malaysia and Japan)

13:00-13:20

Comments on Draft Minutes by Drafters

13:20 -13:50

Adoption of the Minutes

13:50 -13:55

Appreciation by the Representative of Overseas Participants

13:55-14:00

Closing Remarks by Malaysia

14:00 -14:40

Lunch

Technical Visit to MINT

14:40

Arrive at MINT

14:40-17:00

Visit MINT Tech-Park

-

Raymintex Facility

-

Polymer Technology Laboratory

-

Flora Vitro Laboratory

-Friday, October 18-

Return home

List of Participants
for FY2002 FNCA Project Leaders
Meeting
on Public Information on Nuclear Energy

October 15, 2002

INDONESIA

Mr. Arianto Iskandar

Promotion Manager
Center for Public Information on Nuclear Science and Technology and Cooperation
National Nuclear Energy Agency (BATAN)